Still love the Invaders

I just got a few more trades, including The Torch. I am a total sucker for Golden Age superheroes, and I've always liked the Mad Thinker, so I quite enjoyed it. I'm delighted that the original Human Torch is back. Was quite impressed that Alex Ross made the boring-est Invader interesting, actually. And since I loved the original Invaders title back when I was a kid, I am also looking forward to reading Invaders Now! when it comes out in trade.

But that's not what I'm here to write about today. No, I'm here to make an anal-retentive continuity complaint.

So, The Torch starts out with Tom Raymond (Toro) sitting on a roof staring at his wife Ann, who has remarried since his death--and, according to a piece of Invaders Now! 1 I saw online, has two kids with the new husband, with whom she is cuddling on the couch--what, these people never heard of curtains? Fair enough, he's got a right to be bitter about the situation. But she doesn't look particularly old in the picture. Which she probably should be, right?

Okay, granted that Toro had a life after the war. He retired and married. You'd think sometime in the 50s or early 60s considering that his reanimated form is pretty youthful. But he could be older than he looks--he's a mutant, for one thing, and for another his body apparently contains some of the same cells as the original Torch, and that could have an anti-aging effect. So maybe he didn't marry until years later. It's still been a good long time since he died (a matter of decades according to Invaders Now!, which means at least 20 years have passed since they were together, and presumably more since he seems so uncomfortable in the modern world--doesn't like the music, hasn't seen the movies, is kind of freaked out by the tech.

So this is probably just one of those things where the sliding scale isn't working. Isn't it?

Another occasional update

I really do only occasionally update these days, don't I?

I'm taking a bit of a vacation this weekend, as half the family has gone out of town and it's just me and the 16-year-old, who is quite low-maintenance. So last night I started to catch up on some of my comic reading. That means I read three trades: New Avengers: Powerloss (including NA 55-60), Dark Avengers: Molecule Man (DA 9-12), and Final Crisis: Rogues Revenge.

I've actually really enjoyed the Dark Avengers title, and since I also always liked the Molecule Man as a character this one was fun, and not a bad treatment of him. Norman Osborn would be more interesting if he didn't have the hero musculature. Fun seeing some of Victoria Hand's background.

Enjoyed the bit in NA where Cap/Bucky comes home to see what a mess Wolverine has made of his place. :) But man, the Hood still makes me yawn.

But I have to say that Rogues Revenge was probably the best of the lot, particularly since not only did I enjoy it the most, but before reading it I couldn't really have cared less about almost all the characters in it. Now...well, I wouldn't buy a Rogues ongoing, but I'd get another mini. (Well, I'd buy the trade when it came out, but you get my point.)

I've got a few more books in my read-it stack, but I'm not sure when I'll get to them.

Darn it all!

I'm really bummed about Ryan Choi. He was such a fun character, I'm really going to miss him.

Action Figure Commentary: Stargirl and Cyclone

I'm looking at my new Stargirl and Cyclone action figures.

Um, that Cyclone is one terrifyingly tall drink of water (the top of Stargirl's head comes up to her chin), and from the slits in her dress I'm guessing her wind powers provide onlookers the Marilyn Monroe effect more often than not. Nice upswept hair, though. But where's her hat? Didn't she have an awesome hat? And doesn't she have freckles?

Stargirl I have no complaints about, design-wise.

Neither is particularly articulated, but they're pretty. Girl superheroes in sensible shoes are always welcome at our house. Just don't stand them next to each other or you get the freakish height difference.

No such thing as too many Green Lanterns

When it comes to collecting action figures, I usually figure that one figure per character is enough. Sure, I've got a few doubles. I've got two Huntress figures, but technically one is Helena Wayne and the other is Helena Bertinelli. I've got two Black Canaries, but since one is the old-school Alex Ross version, it could be Dinah's mom, right? And I've got two of Batman, and yes, they're both Bruce Wayne, but the DC Universe Classics one has this permanent Quasimodo crouch that makes him, well, just not that nice. But on the whole, yes, one is enough.

Which makes me think about why I'm sitting here with three Kyle Rayner Green Lanterns.

And the reason is: it's the costumes.

I've got the old one wearing his second costume, with the spiky hair and the dog collar. I've got the original costume, the version from the recent JLA Classified series. And now I've got the current costume, from the Blackest Night series.

Apart from the white gloves, I actually like the current costume the best. (And what's with the Green Lanterns and the white gloves anyway? Are they running their fingers across mantelpieces to check for dust?)

This surprised me because I was actually a bit fan of his first costume, and wasn't so impressed with the new one when I first saw it.

You know what the problem is? It's the JLA Classified body--or, as one could call it, "Kyle on steroids." Thick-necked, overmuscled, and definitely not Kyle's body. The Kyle of this era, remember, is artist Kyle, brand new superhero Kyle, Kyle who didn't think he even needed to work out because, you know, he had the ring! He was fit enough for a normal guy, sure, but he wasn't built like Hawkman.

And the original costume, designed for a slimmer build, just looks like hell on that body sculpt.

What were they thinking?

Well, I'm assuming they were thinking of the art. That certainly seems to be the case with the other two figures. The dog-collar Kyle looks like he just stepped out of an Eaglesham page. The Blackest Night Kyle, astonishingly, looks like Gleason's work--something I find surprising because, while I like Gleason, I didn't think he'd translate well into plastic.

So with that in mind, I'm wondering if I should ever look for the JLA Classified books, or would the art just drive me crazy?

So why is it?

So today I was shopping online for some trades, and decided I'd pick up Countdown. (Don't judge me! I liked it!)

I discover that it's available in four trades total.

Only three of which (1-3) are in print.

Doesn't this seem like an odd choice for a limited-run series?

It's alive! It's aliiiive!

Yes, it is true--I don't even blog semi-regularly anymore.

I think it is in fact mainly due to the switch to trades. It was hard enough to write about any current stuff going on when I got my floppies once a month and only a week's worth hadn't been discussed into the ground already. Now I don't see things at all until well after they've made the rounds of the comic internet.

Not that I'm complaining too much, mind you. I like the slight decrease in cost, I like being able to read entire story arcs all at once, I like that trades are so much more storable (and shelvable) than floppies. And it may be, although I'm not sure yet, that buying trades tends to reduce the whole "Must. Read. Comic. NOW!" thing. A trade will be around for a little while, I don't have to buy it as soon as it hits the shelves. I can think about it. I can read what others have to say about it before deciding to buy it. Okay, yeah, I'll probably buy it anyway...but in theory, you know?

Lucky for me I never did mind spoilers. :)

I'm still here. Kind of.

I've been off the comic internet for a while, I know. So in case anyone was wondering...

Yes, I still like comics.

Yes, I still buy comics. (Just getting them as trades now, which seems less conducive to regular writing. Or maybe any writing. Not sure.)

Yes, I still have all my old comics, and am currently in the process of moving them into the attic of the new house.

Yes, I still have all my action figures, and have no idea whatsoever what I am going to do with them here.

No, I haven't been reading the comic blogoverse regularly, although I do dip in a toe occasionally.

No, I haven't been reading comic news sites or comic company sites, either regularly or at all. Best not to tempt the relatively new trade-buying habit with too much news of what's coming up.

No, I haven't twittered or read twitter in a while. I kinda miss it.

I also (clearly) haven't blogged in a while. I kinda miss it.